224 FLORAL SYMBOLISM 



on her breast, and Chastity in white, holding 

 a my.' ' 



All three maidens are attractive, and Chastity 

 the prettiest of the three, unlike the immured 

 * Castitas ' of Giotto,^ whose guards, with surely 

 unnecessary vigour, drive off * Amor ' with 

 pitch-forks. 



The two men not in holy orders, who are 

 permitted to carry the lily, are Saint John the 

 Baptist and Saint Joseph. The former, even 

 if he took no formal vow of celibacy, is looked 

 upon as the first of the Christian anchorites, and 

 the lily of Saint Joseph is the symbol of the self- 

 abnegation of his married life. 



The history of the marriage of the Virgin 

 Mary is found in the apocryphal ' Gospel of the 

 Birth of Mary,' translated by Saint Jerome and 

 abridged in the Catalogus Sanctorum of Peter de 

 Natalibus. 



' And when Mary was fourteen years of age 

 the High Priest commanded that the virgins 

 brought up in the temple should return home 

 and be wedded according to law. And all 



' A Sienese painter of the Franciscan Legend. 

 * Upper Church, Assisi. 



